Emma Watson Just Revealed How She’s Giving Beauty and the Beast a Feminist Makeover

We’ve been on pins and needles waiting for the release of the live-action Beauty and the Beast film starring Emma Watson, and sadly, we’ve still got quite a long ways to go before March 17.

So far, we’ve gotten a few sneak pics of both Belle in full costume and the Beast to tide us over, but we haven’t heard much in the way of the actual storyline.

Will it be a slightly darker version of our childhood favorite, like The Jungle Book proved to be? Or will it masterfully recreate our favorite scenes from the animated version, like these seven classic moments?

Actually, it will be slightly more… progressive. At least that’s what Emma told Entertainment Weekly in her new interview with the mag.

For starters, she’ll be wearing practical boots, thank you very much. “In the movie, she wears these little ballet shoes, and I knew that they had to go, because if you’re going to ride a horse, and tend your garden and fix machinery, then you need to be in proper boots. So Belle’s got proper boots,” she told the outlet.

But more than that, Emma says she’s given Belle a purpose… you know, outside of reading and taking care of the men in her life. Instead, she’ll be the inventor that father Maurice played in the original. “We created a backstory for her, which was that she had invented a kind of washing machine, so that, instead of doing laundry, she could sit and use that time to read. So yeah, we made Belle an inventor,” Emma said in an earlier piece.

Overall, Emma, who says her strong input made “her role as an actor more complicated,” says that the remake will ultimately give Belle more control of her own destiny. “We tried to tweak things to make her more proactive, and a bit less carried along by the story… and a bit more in charge of — and in control of — her own destiny.”

Oh. Em. GEE, we NEED to see this! March cannot come soon enough.

Are you excited about these feminist changes, or were you hoping for an exact replica of the original? Sound off over @BritandCo.